Plastic surgeons, dermatologists and their patients continually search for new and improved methods for treating the effects of an aging skin. One common procedure for rejuvenating the appearance of aged or photodamaged skin is laser skin resurfacing using a carbon dioxide laser. Another technique is non-ablative laser skin tightening, which does not take the top layer of skin off, but instead uses a deep-penetrating laser to treat the layers of skin beneath the outer epidermal layer, tightening the skin and reducing wrinkles to provide a more youthful appearance.
In skin tightening treatment, a laser system is operated to deliver a pulse of radiation to the external surface of the patient's skin. The parameters of the pulse are chosen such that energy from the pulse will penetrate the outer epidermal layer of the skin, into the underlying dermal layer, where at least a portion of the energy will be absorbed by the collagen matrix within the dermis. By selecting the proper laser parameters and techniques for the laser treatment, the deeper region of the skin tissue can be heated to a temperature sufficient to shrink the collagen in the dermal layer, thereby tightening the skin and reducing wrinkles and laxity of the skin to provide a more youthful appearance.